4.28.2010

Wizards of the Coast had posted a link early this afternoon on Facebook which invited all interested to take a survey. Unfortunately, the survey, which was hosted at Market Points had already reached it's quota within a few hours and had closed.

It is believed that the survey's intention was to measure the casual, novice, and seasoned player's interest in attending a local Friday Night Magic event. Furthermore, the survey also provided a short four-minute video about going to game at an FNM and asked your opinion.

Of course we would not be privy to the opinions and comments provided to those who had participated in the survey BUT we do have the opportunity to review comments posted by those who had seen the video and then posted comments on Facebook.

It appears that those who liked it, liked it a lot and those who did not, just hated it. We're not too sure which side of the fence you may be on but we think we're almost sitting on it . . . We realise that Wizards needs to attract players out to an FNM (we were rather tentative / scared to go to our first one). We also realise that there is a VERY diverse crowd of players out there and we've seen 'em all - from Doctors / Lawyers to kids just recently weaned off their mother's milk.

Although we liked the idea of that funny furry critter 'WUBRG' (), as well as showing players what to expect at an FNM, we thought the video could be improved by appealing more to the intellectual gamer. Honestly, if you play Magic, chances (for most of us at least) are you have a fairly decent level of intelligence.

Well, we will see where this goes and what Wizards does the development of this strategy to attract players out to an FNM for some gaming goodness. By-the-way - I think WUBRG is based on a real person I play with at my local store.

You may recall way back in January when Wizards had announced a new multi-player format product coming this summer call 'Archenemy'. We also have more recent information as to the deck themes from a follow-up late April announcement.

This new multi-player format expansion is scheduled to released on June 18th and will feature a “one vs. many” style of game that pits a single player against any number of opponents allied against him / her. This is another initiative by Wizards to lure casual players like me (and perhaps you) from the Kitchen table into the local store for some organised play sponsored by Wizards Play Network.

This particular 'one-off' expansion is composed of four different pre-built game packs. Each pack includes a 60-card magic deck with eight rare cards plus a special deck of 20 oversized cards. Each deck offers a different theme for the solo player in the lopsided-match: an army of undead, an unstoppable doomsday machine, the elemental forces of nature, and the majestic might of dragons. Each pack is expected to retail around $18.00

Some of you who attended the Rise of the Eldrazi Release may have seen these lovely WPN promos - card storage boxes . . . a two-piece clear container, looking like it would hold a 60-card deck and a do-it-yourself long card storage box looking like it would hold 500 cards with dividers - very cooling to show off while gaming.

4.27.2010

You will have to excuse the title of today's post, 'Rise of the Eldrazi Top Cards' as it may be somewhat misleading - we will not attempt to provide a rating of the best cards in this new set for your game - well, just yet. We want to provide a bit of information the gaming community has generated in terms of buys and trades to see what cards have risen to the top. This should provide some insight as what one may expect in terms of your local meta-game or this set's anticipated impact on the standard environment.

~First off - Singles Prices

The Top 10 Rise of the Eldrazi cards in terms of singles pricing. Actually, we're lying - actually the top 13. These prices are a snap-shot only of the last 24 hours and are based on average pricing from select on-line retailers and expected to change by the time of this post.

This is a list of the Top 10 Rise of the Eldrazi cards by volume purchased according to MTG Mint Card, which we will take as a reliable indicator as to which cards are currently popular for players looking to buy.

You may read into these lists whatever you may but the standard game environment has still yet to absorb Rise of the Eldrazi. Having said that, we do have results from Star City Games for TWO Nationals Qualifiers held on 2010-04-25 in Koln, Germany and Angarsk, Russia.

It is interesting to note that Jund still favours quite strongly but have now been displaced in 1st place for 'Mythic' builds, one of which include the new Rise of the Eldrazi card, Eldrazi Conscription - - We're just glad to have gotten ours before crazy knee-jerk price adjustments take place.

4.26.2010

We all knew just within a few hours after the Rise of the Eldrazi mini-site and Orb of Insight went live that some significant changes were coming down the tube which would certainly change the standard game. Obviously, one of the bigger changes was the introduction of the massive Eldrazi cards hitting the gaming table but also on almost the same footing was the lack of any new 'Ally' cards - we saw them in Zendikar, and then Worldwake. Many thought some decent Ally creatures and (quasi) tribal cards were on the way in Rise of the Eldrazi but unfortunately not . . . welcome to Frown Town - population - Ally fans.

To add insult to injury to this slight, Wizards today in their Daily Deck List, had provided a list for Green-White Allies with this deck list :

With Rise of the Eldrazi now available in stores, Daily Decks will spend this week examining popular archetypes from Zendikar Block Constructed events held on Magic Online. That's a format that will really be shaken up by the coming of the monstrous Eldrazi, and we're here to give you a jump start on the competition. Today we start with Green-White Allies. Are there cards from Rise you think can make this deck better? Take a look through the searchable spoiler to decide for yourself.

Really, the only creature spell of use in the new Rise of the Eldrazi block to allow you to trigger all those great Ally effects may be that new shapeshifter, Renegade Doppelganger.

Perhaps, Wizards thought that Allies would not be as popular as it was with casual Magic players like us. Perhaps it was dictated by the story-line - alliances and expedition houses broke up with the new Eldrazi threat - whatever it may be, We're sending scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt, and any thing that may not misbecome the mighty senders to Brian Tinsman, Matt Place and Doug Beyer.

Anywhoos - thanks everyone for letting use rant on a bit like that - lets get back to that deck list we were yattering about before the design rage took us . . .

Well that's a wrap for today's post - we hope everyone had played some great games during this weekend's release event - stay tuned for more rants, casual deck ideas, and news.

If you need to pick up Zendikar block Allies, they should be at a fairly reasonable price - check out MTG Mint Card - all the Rise of the Edlrazi singles are now up and ready for pre-order. BONUS - just enter "MTG-REALM" on check out page and you will get $5 off on your order of $50 or over. This code is good until the end of April, so plan your purchases now.~

4.23.2010

While on lunch-break today, we bolted over the fence and made haste to our local Magic the Gathering gamery store which (almost) promptly opened at 12:00 noon. Why ? - To get our card-grubbing mitts on (somewhat limited first-order supply of) Rise of the Eldrazi before our more tardy brethren made it in. If you are off to an FNM tonight, go right now so you can have your pick of the singles (if your store carries 'em) or obtain your booster boxes, fat packs, or intro packs before they're all gone.

Anywhoos - we scrapped some money from the couch and got a Fat Pack so we could video-dissect for ya . . .

So - what did we pull ?

Not too much of excitement - could have been better but we're still happy : Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Near-Death Experience, Student of Warfare, Sphinx of Magosi, Guul Fraz Assassin, Bear Umbra, Tajuru Preserver, and Sphinx-Bone Wand.

Righto - for those not in the know, here's what you get with the fat pack : Sample chapter from the novel "Zendikar: In the Teeth of the Akoum"Spindown die life counter, 8 Rise of the Eldrazi boosters, Storage box, Wraparound mural, Player's guide, and 40 Rise of the Eldrazi basic land.

We'll go over what we got and may decide to make deck sets of some. - Which by-the-way - if you collect FOILS - it looks like MTG Mint Card just put their inventory up ! Check it out HERE.

If you're heading out to FNM tonight - good luck, and if you are heading out to the official Rise of the Eldrazi Release event - Bring your best game and kick butt.

4.22.2010

We thought we would pull a Crazy Ivan - stop, clear the baffles here at MTG Realm and take stock of what we have missed. To this end, we're dropping a hodgepodge of Magic the Gathering miscellany on your monitors. Grab your goggles and let's go.

First Up -

For those air travelers and Planeswalkers inconvenienced by the recent eruption and subsequent spew of tons of volcanic ash from Iceland, your suffering and pain has a name - Eyjafjallajökull. And it so happens, that this card is for you . .

And here is a card errata:"Should you correctly pronounce the name, you may play this card without paying its mana cost".

Next -

As you may know from our previous post (HERE), the Rise of the Eldrazi Release foil promo (release is this weekend!) is Lord of Shatterskull Pass. What you might not know is what the Game Day (scheduled May 22) are.

Here is the scoop from Wizards : All participants receive a Staggershock promo card while the top 8 players each receive an exclusive Deathless Angel full-art promo card. If your game sucked eggs that day, don't worry, there is still a chance of getting one of two Deathless Angel promo cards which are to be awarded as door prizes at your participating local gamery store.

Ancient ZigguratLand, Conflux Uncommon: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells.

FNM Promo - March, 2010Bloodbraid Elf, 2Creature — Elf Berserker, Alara Reborn UncommonHaste, Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)3 / 2

From waaaay back - actually in February at PTQ San Diego. A very special promo card was provided Wizards tournament organisers to members of that most awesome of television show, Robot Chicken, who had attended to sling cards.

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OK folks, we think it's safe to go back in the pool now - be sure to drop by again real soon as we crack open some sealed Rise of the Eldrazi product.~

4.21.2010

Although Twins Day is still several months away from being celebrated in Twinsburg, Ohio, here at MTG Realm we will be celebrating now . . . more specifically, we will celebrate just how good the new Rise of the Eldrazi card can be in winning you that game.

We suppose that it really does boil down to your personal choice as to where to fit this Twin into your deck and your personal style of game play - are you control, combo or aggro ?

First off, just a brief re-cap -Splinter Twin is an creature enchantment which allows you to put a token that's a copy of this creature onto the battlefield. This new token has haste but you have to exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

An important note however - if you copy a creature with 'X' in it's mana cost, X will be zero with the new token (so forget about Protean Hydra and the like). Also - One will not be able to kick or multi-kick the new token critter (such as Gatekeeper of Malakir).

OK - let's get the creative juices flowing - Send us your choice via comment thingy below, just what you would like to see copied. Our personal choice - Venerated Teacher - in order to back a truck-load of level counters on all our fancy new level-up critters for hopefully an epic game win.

Here are some cards which we felt was some decent synergy with Splinter Twin -

4.20.2010

We're taking a quick break from thinking out loud (or rather blogging out loud) about developing new decks with Rise of the Eldrazi set. Instead, we will be peering into the very short future to see what else is being expected in our fav game . . . namely Duels of the Planeswalkers decks to be released on / about 4th June.

Inspired by the decks from the Duels of the Planeswalkers digital game, Wizards will now make these 60-card decks available in 'paper' format. As a nice bonus, these will come with a 15-card Magic 2010 booster pack, to allow you to customize your deck further (crack'n packs is mostly likely one of our fav pastimes so this is certainly welcome). Let's have a looky-see . . .

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Hands of Flame –The Chandra Nalaar Deck

Burn them all with Chandra’s red deck. Put your opponent on the defensive, then unload an awesome arsenal of fiery destruction.

Teeth of the Predator –The Garruk Wildspeaker Deck

Harness the power of Garruk’s green deck. Take advantage of its abundant resources and devastate opponents with awesome creatures.

Thoughts of the Wind –The Jace Beleren Deck

Manipulate the fabric of the Multiverse with Jace’s blue deck. Watch the fumbling attempts of your opponents as you counter their spells and turn their creatures against them.

Rain down despair with Liliana’s black deck. Master the forces of malevolence and death, and punish opponents with a suite of discard effects.

Duels of the Planeswalkers decks will be available on June 4th, so make tracks to your local brick 'n' mortar and reserve one soon. For DECK LISTS, click HERE.

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Something else which is hitting the shelves are new Rise of the Eldrazi storage products. Check these out . . .

The 9 card portfolio is rather interesting as it does not follow the traditional colour wheel order - that is unless you turn it on its side. To pick these up, check out MTG Mint Card - all the Rise of the Edlrazi singles are now up and ready for pre-order. BONUS - just enter "MTG-REALM" on check out page and you will get $5 off on your order of $50 or over. This code is good until the end of April, so plan your purchases now.